Vitality and Dynamism

Anti-colonial literature is not necessarily ‘combat literature’ as Fanon and Déjeux have both suggested in their own writings. While it is often combative, there is also anti-colonial literature that emphasizes the human and the humane rather than the oppositional and contentious; it cannot be fair to label all anti-colonial literature as combative, even if one were to expand the definition of “combat” to include peaceful struggles against oppression or dehumanization.

This book suggests that the relationship between the West and the rest of the world has been imagined as a relationship of Self (the West) to Other (the rest of the world), ordered and bordered geographically by the whims of Europeans and creating a Center-Periphery paradigm. These invented boundaries of humanity serve to separate geographical sites, but more, they serve to enclose the Empire and exoticize other cultures. Boundaries are often spatial, but more often, they are related to relationships and colonialization.

Kirstin Ruth Bratt is a professor of English, English pedagogy, and developmental studies at Saint Cloud State University.

Youness M. Elbousty is a professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department at Yale University.

Devin J. Stewart is a professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Emory.